2013: Mefjus & InsideInfo collided to create the mighty Mythos/Blunt double header on Virus
2014: The strong-arm Austrian/UK partnership deliver Repentance on Critical’s Underground Sonics album.
2015: Not content with singular annual outings, Mefjus & InsideInfo fire two massive EP shots. Earlier this year came Footpath (with The Upbeats)/ Leibniz. Now, this Friday, comes another chop-slapping doublet on Viper: Pulsation / Talisman.
It looks like more will come in the near future, too…
“We’re definitely going to keep them going,” explains InsideInfo. “We are both blown away by the reception our collabs have received! It’s completely liberating collabing with Martin because we both tend to get stuck in our ways a bit so each time we work it’s like a breath of fresh air. Also we have a great laugh together and that’s very important, never a dull moment!”
With the pulverising dynamics of Pulsations still ringing upside our brains we wanted to find out more about one of drum & bass’s most exciting and consistently heavy collaborations.
Can Mefjus handle InsideInfo’s Whatsapp addiction?
Is InsideInfo a secret schnitzel hater?
And why can’t Mefjus sleep in InsideInfo’s spare room?
Find out the answers as the pair reveal all about their process, partnership and plenty more…
How Mefjus & InsideInfo met…
Mefjus: I think we met in 2012 in Vienna at a gig. I’ve been a fan of Paul’s work for quite a while then and we just started chatting about production and realised we had quite a lot in common, in terms of DAW and what VSTs we use etc. For my next show in the UK Paul invited me to stay at his place for a couple of days to able to work on some beats, and we ended up writing Mythos and Blunt for Virus together.
InsideInfo: It’s funny because we do have a lot in common, but we are completely different people altogether. We are always learning from each other and asking advice about stuff. Not just music related! I remember it taking a few goes before we nailed Mythos, I think we did that on the second attempt, once we got to know our strengths and weaknesses a bit more.
Mefjus: An average day with InsideInfo at my studio goes like this…
“Get up around 9 or 10 and get down to that coffee place around my apartment for some breakfast, then drive to the studio. Usually on the second day Paul would buy some stuff and make breakfast himself, he doesn’t like eating out, he’s weird. Then, in the studio, Paul would instantly activate the kettle as I go for a coffee and smokes.
“In terms of work, we’d usually have a little brainstorm beforehand, in what kind of direction we would like to go, then we’d both dig through sounds and samples the other person made. That’s one of the most important moments for me: as both of us have rinsed our own libraries way too much so we aren’t a 100% objective on the sounds anymore, but the other person might hear it in a different way or just gets inspired differently. After we’ve picked sounds, we’d try to stick just to those sounds for as long as possible, kind of limit ourselves to a palette of sound we’ve agreed on before.
“It’s really random who actually starts the track but it’s always a nice back and forth where we just be in the same room all the time and vibe on something. Sometimes the actual turns at the controls can be just about 5 to 10min and we’d switch seats again. We are just being super honest if we have an idea or if we love or hate something the other person does. “I hate this, this is crap” or “I really like this, let me try something”.
“But we also appreciate when the other person is in the zone and wants to stick to an idea or tries something different. In that case I’d just try to quietly write down my idea into my phone or my computer and let him go longer.
“Do we fight? All the time haha! But actually not at all about the music. We have our own disgusting habits which drives the other person crazy, but that’s just how it is.”
InsideInfo: An average day with Mefjus at my studio goes like this…
“So let me take you through an average day at mine. But first of all let me say that I do love eating out a lot! Just not breakfast, lunch and dinner five days in a row! There is only so much Schnitzel a man can take (unless you are Martin)
“So at mine I would wake up, and Martin would probably still be asleep because he cannot sleep in the spare room because the boiler makes too much noise. Then I would attempt to have a wash but find there is no hot water because he turned off the boiler at night so he could sleep. I would then have to tip toe gently into the spare room and turn it back on. It’s like a bad marriage!
“Then its basically the same process, but with added home cooking. And we certainly do fight a lot. I am messy as hell when working so normally Martin has to spend 20 minutes tidying up the project once I’ve finish my go because it’s completely turned upside down with crap sounds all over the place.
“At some point during any studio marathon we would have watched an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.”
Individual strengths…
Mefjus: “Paul is a ninja with atmospheres, pads and all the weird little FX you hear in our tracks. That’s all him. I’m a nerd about the timing and transients of drums and how they align with the sub and midrange for instance, that’s what I love to do. So basically I’m the person who kills the vibe when we’re working together.
InsideInfo: “This is what’s great: we are both able to fully focus on the things we love the most, knowing that the other person can take care of the other job or bring something new to it. Martin is an absolute technical genius (scarily so) so would spend more time on the engineering elements making sure it all sounds good together.
“But, saying that, we totally swap roles sometimes because working solo you have to be a bit of everything these days. Once have a track fully up and running we set each other tasks and have regular discussions about what the other person is going to do on each track.”
Mefus: 3 important things we need to know about Insideinfo
- He has approximately 342 Predator Figures in his studio, which are all totally awesome
- He likes to be on Whatsapp all the time while he’s in the hot seat, which basically drives me crazy
- If I make a sound that’s really terrible, he’ll tell me that it’s really terrible
Insideinfo: 3 important things we need to know about Mefjus
- Martin tends to emit a lot of strange hi pitched sounds, words and says “balls” a lot.
- He absolutely loves taking the piss out of me in all aspects of life. Daily.
- Martins body is composed of 80% Schnitzel, 10% Beer and 10% Coffee.
*Bonus point: At some point in the next three years, Martin will have discovered a way of generating self sustaining nuclear fusion energy using only FM8.
